If the Body Keeps the Score, What Happens When You Bring the Body to Work? Exploring the Health Effects of Trauma on Human Capital

Lisa Jones Christensen, Elizabeth Embry, Arielle Badger Newman, Paul C. Godfrey

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

2 Scopus citations

Abstract

Data reveal that the physical effects of trauma exposure increasingly surface in business, social, and other settings. Exposure to trauma at any point in life can cause employee health concerns, yet many firms do not acknowledge or address this. Herein, we combine trauma theory with human capital theory to explain how manifestations of trauma exposure—hyperarousal, intrusion, and constriction—impact employee health and performance. This article outlines how each manifestation affects human capital deployment, and thus employee performance. It further demonstrates how these human capital deployment issues have individual- and unit-level performance implications. This article offers a theory linking health effects of trauma to performance outcomes at work. It suggests how managerial awareness of trauma manifestations is a necessary step toward workplaces becoming supportive or healing. Our model offers new explanations related to why some individuals behave as they do at work and connects trauma to employee behavior and value creation.

Original languageEnglish (US)
JournalBusiness and Society
DOIs
StateAccepted/In press - 2024

Keywords

  • firm performance
  • health
  • human capital
  • trauma

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Business, Management and Accounting (miscellaneous)
  • Social Sciences (miscellaneous)

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'If the Body Keeps the Score, What Happens When You Bring the Body to Work? Exploring the Health Effects of Trauma on Human Capital'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this